Sunday, March 30, 2014

Star Wars: Assault Team Impressions and Tips and Play Notes (Game has been removed from App Store)

Update: Game has been removed from App Stores. Check out this post for more information.Note: As of now, players in forums are reporting that there seems to be discrepancies in each accounts' energy recharge timings, energy cost for Arena as well as differences in crates' gem costs.

First and foremost, this is not a card game but more of an RPG game using cards as the characters. I played for a while and initially thought that it was IAP-heavy because I got stuck at around the third stage. However, I choose to stick with it and played some more and I soon figured out that you actually need to grind a bit at the training missions to level up your cards. The game was just designed to have a steep difficulty curve right at the start. Update: I seem to lose even the replayed stages which I have completed before so the difficulty is kind of erratic!

It turns out that the game is surprisingly good. It has nice graphics and card art along with the Star Wars music and sound effects. (It even uses parallax effects; I tilt my iPhone 5 and the stage looked 3D. Unnecessary but cool nevertheless.) The UI is nicely designed but I felt the tutorial left out information that you can feed cards to level up your other cards. The gameplay consist mainly of taps but I encountered lags during battles as I tap to attack but had to wait. The game has an Arena mode (Boneyard/Coliseum) for PVP and I think the opponents are AI controlled. In all, the game is very polished and enjoyable without spending cash. Quite a lot of cards can eventually be levelled all the way to the highest tiers and there are many chances to earn cards in the game.

Update: I notice quite a bit of humour in the game (normally pop-ups) which is a nice touch. For example, I tapped too many times while attacking causes a Darth Vader pop-up warning. I also find the game more enjoyable on a tablet screen than on the iPhone. There is also no rush to complete any "events" in the game so the only limit is the energy timer which is great if you do not want to spend a lot of time on a game. Edit: There are daily special missions which seems to be the only way to get high tier promotion items.

I think the main "cash grab features" of the game is the spending of gems to continue a failed quest and to increase item/hero slots, both "borrowed" from Puzzle and Dragons. I just play ignoring continues and managing my slots well to avoid them while progressing the story.

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I was coming up with tips as I played but I found a site, writepart.com, which covers most of what I want to say:

- *New* App Invasion forumLinks to the game (Game has been removed from App Store)iOS App Store link

Google play Store link

My Tips and Notes (Updated)

- Take note of your Player ID, it is used when contacting Disney Support for game issues.

- I currently have Chewbacca (I think his card drops when you rescue him) and I place him at the first position; it seems like enemies attack our cards from left to right in priority. Chewie's skill heals himself but taunts all opponents into attacking him, making him a good tank but be careful of activating when there are too many enemies.

- I think a healer like the Rebel Medic/Doctor card is important to the team but his stats are low and can only go up to tier 2. If used, he must definitely be placed at the last card. In my current team, I'm not using one but instead go for high HP cards.

- After studying the cards, I actually think buying the 5 gem Tier 2 Hero crates is a good choice if you want a certain card or just want to collect cards. (The game also states that Tier 2 crates provide a higher chance to get the next tier unlike all the other crates) This is because the rarest cards at 5 tiers will still be available as Tier 1 or 2. As a reference, you can buy 4 Tier 2 crates instead of 1 Tier 3 crate.

Buying a higher tier crate will mainly reduce chances of a getting a card (mainly lower rarity) that maxes out before the crate's tier. For example, Imperial Medic/Rebel Doctor maxes out at Tier 2 so buying a Tier 3 crate ensure you do not get it. It also reduces the grind needed to get promotion items to increase tier.
Note: Each crate also comes with 2 items which may be promotion items.Update #1: I'm having second thoughts of this after playing further. Although it is still one way of getting more cards, I actually find it hard to get the necessary promotion items for upgrading cards.

Update #2: Seeing how hard it is to get promotion items and the ease of getting cards in game, an alternative will be to go for the highest crate possible to skip some grinding for promotion items as well as boost your current team.

- I got Luke Skywalker from a Tier 2 Hero Crate and was excited but later discovered that he can be gotten from the later part of the story; he can't be feed or sold as he is needed in Story. Edit: Luke is given during one of the Wookies Missions

- Your game save seems to be locked to your individual device and Game Center account; I deleted and re-installed and my game progress was retained. I use "individual" because I tried the game on iPad 2 and was able to load a new game while keeping the one on my iPhone (Side Note: iPad 2 constantly prompts low memory while in game although I closed every other apps). The bad thing about this is that you cannot share your progress over multiple devices. Update: It seems like the way to link a game to multiple devices is to use Facebook. (Untested)

The deck has 3 healers: Chewie is able to heal himself, Wookie Brawler is able to heal both Chewie and itself while Rebel Doctor can heal anyone in the team. In addition, both Wookies make very good tanks. If you can juggle the 3 heals well, the team should be able to remain healthy through most fights. It will be interesting to get more Chewies and Wookies to form a Wookie tank and heal deck, since this game seem to allow duplicates.

Alternative order:Chewbacca | Han Solo | Wookie Brawler | Rebel DoctorThis will allow Chewie to tank a bit more hits before using Brawler's heal. You can use any skill once it is ready on any player.

I managed to get Luke Skywalker who is another taunt user and I replaced Han Solo. Now Luke and Chewie can both draw fire and protect the other 2 healers.

- In battles, you can tap on the enemy to see the health, attack and skills.

- I think one key strategy for the game is to time your attacks to finish off an enemy right at the moment they are about to attack to grant you "additional" turns.

- Found an App Invasion forum on the game and updated the link list at the top. There are so many tips and information available there:

+ You can tap on any card's special skill that is ready to activate during any other card's turn

+ It's best to feed the full 5 lots for levelling to save on credits

+ The in-game tips hint about training items combination and here are the combinations.

- The game currently has discrepancies between each account in energy recharge timings (lowest is 4 minutes reported), energy cost for Arena (lowest is 1) as well as differences in crates' gem costs (most expensive crate being 25). I have no idea if it is a bug or the developers intended for doing player research. My iPhone cost 1 energy for arena, while my iPad cost 4. I think it is particularly unfair for the players and this is the first time I encounter such a thing for a freemium game. I have added this point as a note at the top of the post as warning to new players.